The invention relates to a fitting jig for a connector adapted to connect a flat cable to fork-shaped terminals.
A connector used to connect fork-shaped terminals to a flat cable, such as a FPC (flexible printed circuit) and a ribbon wire, in which flexible conductors are arranged on an insulating sheet at predetermined intervals is well known in the art. A connector of this type has been proposed under Japanese Utility Model publication No. 6-31094.
The connector has a slide member that is set in a connector housing. With a flat cable inserted into the connector housing, operating protrusions formed on the slide member at both ends are pressed so that the slide member is pushed into the connector housing. As the slide member is pushed in this manner, a pushing portion of the slide member goes into the housing, to push the flat cable upwardly to press the latter against the terminals. Thus, the flat cable is fixedly held in the connector in such a manner that it is prevented from coming off the latter.
However, with the above-described conventional connector, the cable connecting operation is rather troublesome. As was described above, in order to fix the cable in the connector housing, the slide member must be pushed into the connector housing. On the other hand, there is a tendency for a connector to be miniaturized for instance, a connector about 15 mm in width and about 2.5 mm in height is available. Accordingly, the pushing surface formed on the slide member is extremely small, which makes it difficult to smoothly push the slide member into the connector housing. Another factor is that the cable connecting operation is carried out in a clean room. Therefore the worker must wear gloves to handle the cable and the connector, which makes it more difficult for the worker to perform the cable connecting operation.
Hence, sometimes a cable is conveyed to the following station that is not completely connected to the terminals.